Leveraging ICT to improve the business model for a Technology Innovation Centre or Science Park Bob Cushing Harwell 9 th February 2011

Revenue from ICT services should be the second largest source of income for operators of business centres after rents Experience based on years of operating ICT infrastructure on behalf of business centres and science parks Focus on business models and fund raising Introduction

Ability to offer a range of services What about quality and response (SLA)? Onsite support Think about local availability Consider including basic service in rent Scale leads to economies Critical facility for technology based tenants Often sophisticated requirements for smallest companies Differentiation

Cost of external connection Install/rental Resilience Term Infrastructure Cabling/ducting/wireless Wiring closets/comms room/Data Centre Core network Bandwidth/QOS management Switching/routing/firewalls Creating the business model

Centralised architecture

How many tenants? How many users? Over what period? What are they going to need? Basics are Broadband Internet Access at a range of speeds/prices Telephones – one per user? Additional services? Understanding the revenue profile

Broadband Base per user price equivalent to home access Range of services Up to 5 users 5-10 users Dedicated bandwidth Symmetric services Telephone Per user per month including handset Competitive rates (cf. BT standard business rates) IT support Which services do tenants most want?

Data Networking Ability to connect to remote workers/other offices Security Firewalls Spam and virus protection and hosting Virtual tenants/reception Backup and business continuity Additional services?

New services Online collaboration Hosted Exchange SharePoint Unified Communications (Open Communications Server) Video conferencing Desktop Meeting Rooms Telepresence Available on a PAYG basis

DIY Pros You get to keep all the money Quality control? DIY Cons More investment Staff Billing and collections Outsource Pros Someone elses problem More scalable Reduce investment? Outsource Cons Selecting a SP Reduced revenues and margins Control over quality DIY or outsource?

Running own services in house since opening Telephone Broadband Hosted Exchange Catalyst: Ageing infrastructure needed replacing Telephone switch required £18k maintenance per annum Exchange servers ageing Task: identify outsource partner to run services Results Reduce cost/remove need to re-invest Wider range of services Resilient higher capacity external connections Provide predictable revenue through revenue share mechanism Case study – BioCity, Nottingham

Had external provider but wanted to re-evaluate options Catalyst: new development requiring state-of-the-art infrastructure Task: Review specifications for new build Identify supplier for new room booking system Procure new outsourced provider Results: All tasks completed saving £25k in first year Consultancy ROI in 6 months or less Case study – Colworth Science Park

Telecoms is a scale business High cost of infrastructure ROI based on small monthly amounts across many users The biggest single cost is the external connection The more remote the more difficult and costly Is my infrastructure up to it? The cost of retrofitting cf. doing it right first time Pricing Can I compete against the bigger providers? Inclusive rents Bundling/subsidising The challenges for science parks/TICs

Consultancy service available from Broadband Vantage Services Strategy for Multi Tenanted Buildings Technical and specification support Procurement Business model development Source a supplier ICT services Video Conferencing, AV and Unified Communications Download brochure from Contact Contacts